Of High Grade and Old Friends
by Seekerfemmedraca
Summary: The final chapter is now up. Will Ratch and 'Jack get it together in the end, or will one loose the other before anything can be admitted? [Warnings: Slash-Nothing graphic-, death- somewhat graphic-, and some sap at the end, sorry]
1. Chapter One

Of High Grade and Old Friends  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own them, as much as I want to. Warnings: Slashy. If that isn't your cup of tea, don't read it. Pairing: You'll find out.  
  
"Shhh," Sunstreaker hissed at his brother and Bluestreak. "Do you want us to get caught with this stuff?" He gestured to the energon cubes in the pair's arms as well as the one in his own.  
  
"What are we gonna do with this stuff?" Bluestreak asked quietly.  
  
"We're gonna put it in the one place no one with think of looking for high grade, the lab." answered the yellow warrior.  
  
"But what about? ..."Sideswipe was cut off as his counterpart made a 'quiet' motion and signaled the three to sneak into the lab.  
  
They placed the cubes towards the back of the pile as quickly as possible and left. Sideswipe was the only one to look back.  
  
'I have a bad feeling about this', he thought to himself.  
  
***** Wheeljack distractedly grabbed an energon cube from the lab's stockpile. He was working on a new project, modifying a new set of high frequency speakers for Jazz and Blaster. The tip of his right index finger flipped open, revealing a sharp siphon, which he stuck into the cube. So absorbed was the engineer in his work that he did not notice the cube's content was of a formula that was the Transformers equivalent of several shots of tequila.  
  
***** Ratchet looked up from the report he was writing when he heard someone enter the main med-bay doors.  
  
"If it's one of the twins I'll...I'll...I don't know what I'll do." He sighed grumpily to himself.  
  
"Hello Ratchet."  
  
"Oh, hello Wheeljack. What brings you here?" The medic's look darkened. "Don't tell me something blew up in your face again."  
  
The head of Autobot engineering gave the CMO a strange look. 'No, I just came to visit, and talk," and maybe more.   
  
Ratchet stiffened at the internal communication. Usually that type of communication was only used on the battlefield when all other sounds drowned out any chance of hearing your voice...or when someone was talking to a gestalt or bond mate.  
  
Wheeljack took slow steps towards the weary mech. When he got to a few feet of him, he started to circle Ratchet, examining every inch of his frame.  
  
"Wheeljack? What's going on with..."  
  
Ratchet stopped when the other laid a finger on his lip components. Not only did the residue of high grade give him pause, the proximity and variation of the Lancia's energy field.  
  
As chief medic, Ratchet knew that a mech's emotions affected one's field. He was also versed in the feeling of such fields. Fear caused a field that was larger than normal, as well as running on a higher energy frequency. Sadness was a shrunken, 'heavy' field. But this, this was...want...desire...lust...and, dare he say it?, love.  
  
Wheeljack removed his finger from Ratchet's lips, trailing down his shoulder and arm to the medics hand.  
  
"Wheeljack, you're overcharged. You don't..." Once again he stopped, but this time it was from the shivers of pleasure. Wheeljack was tracing the lines and joints of Ratchet's hands, sending more energy into the field surrounding his own fingers. As a medic, Ratchet's sense of touch needed to be amplified, thus his hands were filled with more tactile and energy sensors then a normal bot. The bursts Wheeljack were sending lit up the sensors in ways they hadn't since...well, for a long time.  
  
The engineer abandoned the hand and Ratchet almost made a sound of disappointment. That is, until the other's hands started to explore his face. He traced around the edge of the helm, caressed his nose from base to tip and started to trace the edges of the chevron on his forehead.  
  
There's another side of you the mech here does adore. Aside from your temper everything else is secure. You're good for me baby. Of that, I am sure Wheeljack sent softly, lovingly.  
  
Ratchet managed to get a grip on his emotions, realizing that this could not go any farther. He gently gripped his friend's hand and pulled them away from his body.  
  
"We can't do this," he insisted gently.  
  
The other lifted his optics, now glowing darkly, and sometimes flickering, to the medic's own light blue ones.  
  
"But..." he said weakly, as if his energy, now not concentrated on seducing (Yes seducing, Ratchet admitted to himself. And it had been working too), was disappearing.  
  
'With the formula of that energon, it probably is' Ratchet though to himself.  
  
"I know, but it won't work. We'll only end up hurting ourselves in the end. Now come on, let's get you to a flat before you keel over."  
  
Ratchet led Wheeljack over to one of the more secluded med tables, easing the engineer onto it. He turned to go back to his office, but Wheeljack's voice, still growing weaker, stopped him.  
  
"I'm sorry Ratchet. I...I...just don't want to be alone again."  
  
Not many people knew, but before the war broke out, Wheeljack had had a bond mate. They were very close and both worked in the same field. However, during their first battle as members of the Autobot Army, his partner, Charge, was fatally wounded. He died in Wheeljack's arms, and the engineer grieved for a long time. Then he met Ratchet and the wounds started to heal as the two became good friends, working their way up the ranks to become Prime's senior officers.  
  
Ratchet's face hosted a ghost of a smile. "I know old friend, I know." He smiled again as Wheeljack drifted into recharge, the high grade finally out of his system.  
  
As he reached his office, he turned back to look at his patient and reached to dim the main lights.  
  
'Maybe someday. But just not yet. We both have some changing, and healing to do, even after all these years.'  
  
A.N.: This was my first try at slash-fic, so I'm open to any suggestions. I wanted to explore a possible relationship between Ratchet and Wheeljack, as well as the fact that they might not be quite that compatible. 


	2. Chapter Two

For those who wanted more, you got it. It's Ratchet's history. Prepare for sadness.  
  
Kup walked into the repair bay. It was a few days after the disastrous mission and Ratchet was tinkering with a laser scalpel, his back to the door.  
  
"Hello there lad".  
  
Ratchet tensed when he recognized the voice, his hand clenching around the medical instrument in his hand. 'Go away. Leave me alone.' That thought repeated in his head as the memories came flooding back to him.  
  
~~Flashback~~  
  
Wingnut and Deadbolt worked in the perfect synchrony only a few types of Transformers could. They were bond mates who had a third, the young medic Ratchet. He was working frantically on another, but not as critical, patient in the trench further away from the front lines of the fight. They had been bonded long before there were any hints of war, but they had taken Ratchet as an apprentice, and later as a partner. The three had become some of the best field medics in the Autobot army. They had been assigned to an experienced squad under the leadership of a teal veteran named Kup. While being known as a good commander, his squad always came in with the most casualties and was also known for sometimes leaving Bots behind. The casualty count was the reason why Deadbolt, Ratchet and Wingnut were assigned to the unit. The fact that they never let anyone stay behind was a good thing too.  
  
At the moment the squad was in a vicious fight with a horde of seeker drones over an energon stockpile. The three medics were in their element, doing fast repairs to keep the soldiers going, and stabilizing the ones that couldn't. The front was moving steadily close to the trench in which Wingnut and Deadbolt were working together on a life or death case.  
  
Kup stumbled into the trench Ratchet was working, energon leaking from a wounded shoulder.  
  
"There's too many of them! Pull back!" he shouted over the comm. lines.  
  
"We can't move our patient! Give us five cycles!" Deadbolt shouted back, explosions nearly drowning out his voice.  
  
"Leave him! All units pull back!"  
  
Ratchet stared at the teal veteran in shock. Abandoning a comrade, a wounded one at that, went totally against the Autobot code.  
  
"No. You leave him, you leave us as well." The finality in Wingnut's voice stunned and worried Ratchet.  
  
You can't be serious! the medic sent to his mates.  
  
We are was the double reply.  
  
The rest of the squad was already retreating and Kup grabbed Ratchet's arm. The old mech tried to pull the white medic away from the fight, and his partners. This action was greeted with an almost violent reaction, as Ratchet yanked his arm back.  
  
" NO! I'm not leaving either! " His impulsive response was verbal as well as link sent.  
  
"Come on lad, I won't loose all three of my medics in one go. Get moving!" Kup's shouting was ignored in favor of the transmissions the white medic was receiving.  
  
Go! Don't worry about us! Deadbolt insisted.  
  
But...  
  
A wave of calm swept through Wingnut's part of the bond. Go, beloved. It is our time, not yours. You will heal, and find another.   
  
Ratchet couldn't believe what he was receiving. I won't... he argued weakly.  
  
Yes you will. Now go. With that, Wingnut silenced his end of the link, but did not cut it off completely.  
  
Kup had lost all patience with the younger mech and yanked him by the arm again. This time Ratchet lost balanced and as he fell, Kup transformed and caught him in the flat cargo area of his vehicle mode.  
  
Ratchet watched as the front lines were left behind. He saw Wingnut and Deadbolt climb out of the trench to protect their ultimately doomed patient. Only Deadbolt looked back at the last retreating members of their squad.  
  
See you on the other side kid.   
  
Then the seekers were upon them.  
  
~~ End Flashback ~~  
  
That was the last time Ratchet had seen them alive.  
  
"I'm sorry about leaving them behind lad."  
  
He was SORRY?! After intentionally abandoning them to save his own sorry hide?! How DARE he!!!  
  
"Get out", Ratchet growled lowly, dangerously.  
  
"What was that lad?" Kup asked.  
  
Ratchet turned his head to the side, still not looking at Kup. "I said get out. And I don't want to see you in this bay or near me ever again, murderer."  
  
The veteran bristled. "Now see here kid..."  
  
Ratchet snapped. He whirled on the other, optics blazing with unholy fury. He threw the laser scalpel at the other and it embedded itself in the wall an inch from the side of his face.  
  
"GET OUT OF MY MED BAY!!!!!!!" he roared.  
  
Kup stood shaking with shock for a moment, then he started to back towards the door, slowly and as unwilling to turn his back on the medic as he was a 'Con. After a few steps he turned and ran out the door like Megatron himself was after his hide.  
  
~~~~~  
  
"I wanted to kill him for...a long time 'Jack."  
  
"I know Ratch, I know. I felt the same way after Charge was killed."  
  
Ratchet looked over at his closest friend. The entire recounting had been spurred by some gentle prodding from the engineer. Actually, it was more like Wheeljack essentially saying to him:  
  
"I told you why I was an emotional wreck when we met, now it's your turn."  
  
Ratchet sighed. "But for you it was the 'Cons. I wanted to put an Autobot into stasis, permanently. A commanding officer at that." He looked down at his hands as if they didn't belong to him.  
  
Wheeljack leaned over the table and lifted the medic's chin, gazing at him optic to optic. "Did you? No. Listen, you lost two thirds of yourself that day, no one can blame you for your actions.'  
  
They stayed that way for a few moments before Wheeljack leaned back into his chair and grabbed the energon cube he had been consuming before the story had started. After a few more moments of comfortable silence, Wheeljack broke it.  
  
"Do you believe what he said?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
Wheeljack gave him a sideways look. "Wingnut."  
  
"Yeah, and I think I found the one I'm supposed to be with."  
  
Wheeljack's 'ears' flashed with amusement. "Who, Perceptor?"  
  
"No," Ratchet said seriously, "you."  
  
Before anything else could be said, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker walked into the bay carrying Bluestreak, who was in vehicle mode. The Datsun's entire front end was crumpled and various other gouges were leaking energon.  
  
"Primus! What happened?" Ratchet demanded.  
  
"Long story" Sideswipe said.  
  
"We got time," Wheeljack said as everyone settled down for a long repair and tale. 


	3. Chapter Three

A.N. is located at the end.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
Wheeljack glanced up from the tool he was fiddling with, then looked back down and continued what he had been doing.  
  
"Nothing," he muttered softly.  
  
Ratchet let out the robotic equivalent of a snort. "Nothing? 'Jack, you can't fool me. You're slouched down at the furthest, darkest table in the rec room and fiddling with something, yet you tell me nothing's wrong." Ratchet pulled out a chair, sat down and put his elbows on the table, supporting his chin on his intertwined fingers. "Now, what's going on?"  
  
Wheeljack didn't look up. "Thinking."  
  
"'Bout what?"  
  
"The past...Charge..." Here the engineer looked up at his comrade. "You and me."  
  
The medic wasn't surprised. "What about you and me?"  
  
"What you said the other day." Wheeljack was still fiddling with the tool.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Did you mean it?" Wheeljack couldn't look at the other.  
  
Ratchet reached across the table with one hand and gripped the Lancia's fidgeting ones. "Wheeljack," the other looked up, meeting Ratchet's blue optics with his own, "I meant every word. I – "  
  
The CMO wasn't able to finish his statement as an alarm went off. "All Autobots report to the command center," Optimus' voice called over the P.A. system.  
  
Jazz poked his head into the room. "C'mon, fellas, duty calls."  
  
"Coming, Jazz," Wheeljack said as he got up with Ratchet.  
  
"We'll talk later, okay?" Ratchet said.  
  
"Yeah, sure," was the noncommittal response.  
  
(Spacer text, sorry)  
  
The battle wasn't going well. A call had come in from a local power plant saying that a small group of Decepticons were attacking. Prime had taken Jazz, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Ratchet, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker and Bluestreak to respond. As it turned out, the 'Cons outnumbered them two to one. Fortunately, they were able to take out Soundwave's cassettes as well as a pair of Constructicons, so they didn't have to deal with Devastator. However, Soundwave was jamming every long distance radio, so they had no way to call for backup.  
  
Ratchet was growing more and more uneasy as the battle wore on. He suddenly realized what was making him fidget. "Where's Starscream?" he said into the Autobot radio frequency.  
  
"Didn't he get shot down already?" Wheeljack sent back.  
  
The scream of jet engines disproved him. The primarily white mech whirled around only to get at least twenty rounds of deadly fire right in the chest. The rounds did not fully pierce the Lancia's thick outer armor; however, the shards of glass from his now-shattered windshield cut more easily through his thin inner plating. The force of the shots knocked him off his feet and he arched through the air, coming down hard a dozen yards away. This jarring caused a particularly nasty piece of glass to dislodge from its already precarious position and cut through a main fuel line.  
  
For Ratchet, time slowed down from the moment Starscream started his deadly pass to the moment Wheeljack hit the ground. He stood frozen for those moments, just watching. As soon as time resumed its natural speed, the medic screamed his friend's name. Without conscious thought he began pelting across the battlefield, somehow dodging fire and avoiding derbies. Without completely stopping, Ratchet fell to his knees next to his friend. Even at first glance he knew that Wheeljack would need a miracle the humans would call biblical in proportion. He began to remove as much of the now- useless chestplate as fast as he could without causing even more damage to the offline mech. He stared in growing horror at the increasing amount of fluid in Wheeljack's upper frames, cavities and crevasses.  
  
He barely registered the arrival of Sunstreaker. The yellow warrior stood over him and his patient, providing cover for them. Ratchet fumbled to patch the severed line, but he knew it was close to impossible without any of the equipment that the med bay had.  
  
"So much...he lost so much," he whispered to himself. Sunstreaker caught it and looked down for a moment, his optics brightening. Wheeljack's body was slowly graying – a sign that he was dying.  
  
"Ratchet!" he exclaimed. "He's still dying! Do something!"  
  
"I...I can't! I can't do anything else! He's not going to make it back to the Ark!"  
  
"Then hold him!" Sunstreaker said intensely.  
  
Ratchet was in the throes of what every medic tried to suppress, panic. "How?" he asked the one person who would probably not know anything useful.  
  
"Save him."  
  
Those words triggered an old memory of a rumor he had heard when the war first started. It said that a set of bond-mates had been sent into a battle, and one of the two was fatally injured. His mate had taken drastic action and had downloaded his partner's core programming into his own memory banks. They were able to repair the body, then reload the program back into the shell. But then again, the uploader was also a cassette host, and thus had a much larger amount of free memory than the normal Cybertronian.  
  
"Slag that," he muttered to himself as he pried open a panel on the side of his helm and yanked out a cable. "I'm gonna save him even if it kills me." He ignored Sunstreaker's startled look as he did the same to Wheeljack. With a quick strong tug, his own cable snapped, followed by the cable from Wheeljack. He spliced the two cables together and was swamped with alerts and danger reports not his own. He shut off his optics, steeled himself, then allowed his consciousness to cross the cable link between himself and his friend.  
  
Ratchet found himself in a world with no substance, direction and a quickly- dimming ambient light that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. He moved (floated, swam?) through the grayness of the place, looking for his goal.  
  
"Wheeljack!" he called, though no sound came out of his vocalizer. He felt the response and continued on, hopefully in the direction of his friend's inner self. The light continued to dim, and Ratchet knew he had to find Wheeljack soon or they would both die, the medic trapped in the engineer's body.  
  
His motion abruptly stopped as he seemed to slam into a wall. The wall became opaque and flickered with what Ratchet assumed was a memory. However, he wasn't prepared to witness this one.  
  
[Memory]  
  
"How's it going down there, 'Jack?"  
  
"I don't know, Charge, I'm too busy keeping those Primus damned seeker- drones off your aft."  
  
A burst of baritone laughter echoed back from the grey and yellow flyer as he swooped through a trio of drones. Bursts of yellow laser fire shot from his wing-mounted cannons, striking the Decepticons and downing all three. Wheeljack cheered on his bond-mate, then snapped off a few shots on another triad of drones, scattering them.  
  
"Aw, slag," came the transmission from the squad leader.  
  
"What's going on, chief?" questioned Charge.  
  
"One eye is coming," came the grave reply.  
  
Charge let out a curse in Old Autobot. "We have enough to deal with already!"  
  
"Don't you think I know that?" the squad commander snarled back as he shot an advancing ground drone.  
  
The squad's comm. officer was calling frantically to Iacon. "Squad 993 calling Iacon! Come in, Iacon! We have a situation! We need backup!"  
  
Static was the only response he got. The red mech cursed and stared up at his commander. "We've lost this one, Deadlift. We gotta get outta here, as in now."  
  
Deadlift snarled then barked the order to retreat to the tunnels under his command. The squad pulled back quickly trying to get to the tunnel entrances they had left a mile behind them. When they were in sight of the tunnel was when all hell broke loose. A huge purple figure landed heavily on the ground and was quickly surrounded by Seeker-drones. His single yellow optic bulb glowed menacingly as an equally-menacing glow started to emanate from the gun that was attached to his arm instead of a hand. The drones started to fire in volleys at the retreating Autobots, striking most of them down.  
  
Wheeljack, Deadlift and the red comm. officer reached the relative safety of the tunnel entrance with moderate injuries. Deadlift looked back onto the battlefield where the last remnants of the squad were making a desperate dash to the tunnel. Charge flew towards the entrance, dodging fire from the multitude of Seekers. He was within twenty yards of his goal when a thick lance of purple energy shot through the deadly hail of light and seared through the grey flyer. Charge went down in a hail of metal and energon, his momentum causing him to bounce off the ground with a sickening crunch and through the tunnel entrance, which was slammed shut behind him. He crashed to a halt another twenty yards into the tunnel, which echoed with the horrible sounds of the impact. Wheeljack rushed to his side and stared in horror as his bond-mate tried to transform back to his robot mode. The flyer got stuck halfway and Wheeljack knelt down next to him, gathering the mangled and dying Charge into his arms. The engineer didn't want to believe it, but he knew it was true. Shockwave's shot had pierced through Charge completely, melting vital components and rupturing major fuel lines. The mostly white mech was quickly becoming stained with the fluids leaking from the other.  
  
"Wheeljack." Charger's vocalizer squealed the word out as his systems started their final shutdown. "Promise," his vocalizer squealed again and he focused what little life he had left into his last words, "promise me you'll go on from here. Promise you'll keep living and find someone to take care of you when you blow yourself up with those projects." His optics continued to dim and his color faded. While the blast had destroyed much, it had also melted together enough components and tubes to draw out his death in an excruciating way. Distantly the pair heard the squad commander yelling at other survivors to get ready to fight in case Shockwave and his troops got through, but it was ignored in favor of their final moments together. "Promise me you'll find another."  
  
"Charge," Wheeljack murmured, going emotionally numb.  
  
Another squeal. "Promise me!"  
  
"I promise, Charge, I promise."  
  
And the grey flyer left life with a smile despite everything else. He got his promise.  
  
[End Memory]  
  
The wall shattered and Ratchet was hurled through thousands of other memories, which showed only in flashes. The end of the onslaught was his goal. He had found Wheeljack.  
  
In this form the engineer was nothing but a steadily dimming ball of white, red, and green light, but the medic 'grabbed' at it with his very essence and using every ounce of stubbornness and will he had ever gained to drag them both back to his own mindscape. His strength was quickly being sapped by Wheeljack's dying body, however. Ratchet struggled through more memory tunnels and was surprised when a blue light appeared in front of him. Not knowing what it was, but desperate to save both himself and his friend, he latched onto it. It guided him through the other and back into his own body. Ratchet activated his optics, staring up into Sunstreaker's panicked face, and said, "I got him," before falling into a restoring stasis lock, Wheeljack's mind pulsing warmly in his own.  
  
(Spacer text, please ignore)  
  
Across the battlefield another mech also reactivated his optics, murmuring "Operation successful," in a melodic tone before joining his comrades in a 'strategic withdrawal.'  
  
(Blahblahblah, please ignore this spacer)  
  
"Hey, he's coming to."  
  
"Good, 'cause Ahm gonna smack some sense inta him. Pullin' a stunt like that..."  
  
"I believe that would not be the proper choice of action, my friend."  
  
"Yeah, man, lay off. He performed a miracle."  
  
Ratchet became aware of the sounds of Jazz, Ironhide and Wheeljack. This realization caused him to bolt upright from his original laid-out position.  
  
"Wheeljack! You're alright! You're back in your body!"  
  
The Lancia's optics conveyed the smile that the rest of his facial structure could not. "Yes. Perceptor and the new guy, First Aid, helped build me a new one. They were able to relocate my programming from your memory banks into the ones in here." He tapped his head above his distinctive 'flashing ear thingies,' as Bluestreak would say. Speaking of the gunner, Ratchet finally noticed the other 'Bots in the room. Bluestreak stood beaming next to the twins and Jazz. Prowl stood next to Ironhide, the tactician wearing a tiny smile compared to the wide grin of the elder warrior. Perceptor stood next to a mech Ratchet assumed to be First Aid, and there, standing behind Wheeljack, was another old friend, Optimus Prime.  
  
"How long was I out?" the white medic asked his commander.  
  
"Two Earth weeks. And we missed you every minute of them."  
  
Another voice broke into the moment. "Me Swoop have a question."  
  
The Dinobot stood up from his sitting position in the corner and walked to the med table where Ratchet sat. He looked into the newly-awakened mech's optics as if searching for something. "Does what happened to you Ratchet and him Wheeljack make you bond-mates now?"  
  
The impact of the question was enormous, the intelligence and implications behind it crashing down upon those gathered in the med bay. The stillness held for a moment before Ratchet climbed off the med table and stood next to Wheeljack.  
  
"Yeah, I think it does."  
  
Bluestreak, Sideswipe and Jazz broke into cheers while everyone else gave the new mates gave pleased looks.  
  
The medic and the engineer both had the same thought, but for one word:  
  
'I did it, Deadbolt/Charge.'  
  
FIN A.N.: WHEEE!!! It's finally done!!! YAY!!! :::Whacks fic with umbrella::: This thing took me long enough. Grr... Anyway, seems that Ratch and 'Jack get a happy enough ending. I hope you people have been paying attention, cuz a trio of reappearing characters here are going to have their own fic written for them. Thanks to all the reviews for the feedback, I'm gald you enjoyed my little story. And, before I forget, someone asked me what the '' in my first to chapters meant. It was SUPPOSED to be ... for internal radio, but FF.N messed it up... and on that note let me try that a different way. ... Just reverse the arrows 


End file.
